Map Making Guide
Beginning Open your Savage directory, you´ll find a folder named graveyard and a batchfile named editor. With this batchfile you can start the editor comfortably. There is a autoexec.cfg file in the graveyard folder which allows you to easily manipulate starting settings of the editor, like default start map, default map name in the "loading" box and more details. Terrain You can design the terrain with the deforming tool. There is also a possibility to import a heightmap (described in the newerth forums), but this process is linked to a long time you will spend with mending the map into your likes, so time effort will be pretty the same in both processes. Minimizing sharp edges will result in a more natural look. * '' left mouse button '' : raises/smoothes the terrain * '' right mouse button '' : lowers/sharpens the terrain * '' For all the actions selected you can affect the strength and the form of the brush in the toolbox on the left side. '' Texture and Paint Find the texture you like and apply it to your map. This step can also be done roughly before forming the terrain, so you still have a flat land which makes drawing single texture lines easier. You have texture layer 1, 2, and 3. Layer three is a bit tricky to use, best is you have a look in Aneurysms mapping tutorial (mentioned with link above) how to do. The different layers are for blending the textures into each other, so you have a smooth transition over from one texture to the next. Remark that there are textures with grass on them and others without. Also if you are using the XR editor, this marks the first difference to the predecessors because of some textures that won´t work without XR. Painting should be one of your last steps when making a map. You can add a basic tone to a certain region, draw shadows under trees to make them look more realistic, draw the ground around houses or props to make their appearance more smooth. Select your colour and apply it similar to layer 2 or 3 textures. with the * left mouse button '' you apply a texture/paint to a spot * ''right mbutton '' you remove a texture/paint * ''Working with different layers than just layer 1, you can also change the strength in the toolbox. '' Objects (Props) Now you can select some nice Objects to place into nice spots of your map. Props affect the worker´s pathing (coming later on), so be sure to place them in a way so there are still good pathes where you want them to be. Size relations are a bit tricky to see in the editor, so be sure to test your map. There are following manipulations possible while placing objects: * ''left mbutton: '' taking an object while holding the button * ''right mbutton: '' turning an object while holding the button * ''shift+left mbutton: '' changing altitude of the prop * ''shift+right mbutton: '' changing size as a whole * ''strg+right mbutton: '' changing falling gradient of Z axis * ''alt+right mbutton: '' changing falling gradient of X axis. * '' delete: '' removes a marked object Environment Here you can set lighting and overall settings of your map. ''Grass '' This setting offers a variety of plants to spread on the parts of your map where a "grass" texture is applied. "Aquatic" will appear near "General Water" props. The perimeters define how your grass should look like. ''Fog '' settings define how near fog will start and how far it will get it´s maximum intensity. Experiment with these perimeters to get the settings you like. ''Time of day '' settings affect your lighting. Set the time of day to a point you like, click on "ADD", then move it to a second point, click again and you´ll have a cycle from one point to the next one. You can do this also with multiple points. Occluders Occluders help to get a faster game even on slower machines. Everything that is behind an Occluder won´t be rendered. Place them inside a hill or a building to "hide" everything thats behind. The silverback engine does only calculate the nearest 8 occluders, but this doesn´t mean there shouldn´t be more than that on your map. Look out that no edge of your occluder points out the landscape, this will cause in-game vanishing objects. An Occluder does not stop projectiles. * press '' v to add a Vertex (a point on the outline where you can deform) to your occluder. * right mbutton '' turns the occluder * ''left mbutton '' moves the occluder * ''shift+left mbutton '' changes the altitude of an occluder * ''shift+right mbutton '' pitches an occluder * ''v '' whilst pointing on the outline of an occluder adds a Vertex (a point on the outline where you can deform). * ''click on the vertex '' moves only the vertex. * ''delete: '' removes a marked occluder Effects and Emitters Every effect you want to place on your map (such as fire or smoke, or probably some glancing somewhere) needs an emitter. click on effects, name it and choose an effect. Then look with the camera to the place where you want to apply the effect and place an emitter. In the options of this emitter you select the effect you want to have. * ''You can move emitters by holding left mbutton '' * ''You can select different effects/emitters by clicking into the black box "effects" or "emitters" '' * ''delete '' removes an emitter Triggers Try to find your way out of this by loading an example and having a look at the triggers there. Basically it needs a procedure similar to effects/emitters. You´ll need a script and a trigger. Select a script and apply it to your trigger. * ''You can move triggers by holding left mbutton Undo Undoes your last action. In critical situations it´s advisable to save your map, because this one "undo" action can be a single mouseclick which didn´t affect anything, so nothing will be undone then. If your editor crashes, this function can come in handy to rescue your map. Restart the editor, immediately after launching click >undo< and you should have your map back in the state before the most recent change. Command line In the command box (~) you have access to a variety of powerful commands. Here you´ll find a short selection of some commands the author is using: * colorreachable: '' Re-paints your map in red and green, where red is unreachable and green is walkable terrain. ! Be sure to save your map before this, it can only be undone if you don´t manipulate ANYTHING on the map (not even a single mouseclick). ! * ''gfx_clouds 0 '' will turn off the clouds and provide you a clearer vision on ground colors * ''gfx_fog 0 '' turns fog off * ''gfx_farclip 100000 ''sets the border of rendering to 100000, shows the whole map at once * ''navrep_process '' calculates the pathing for NPC´s like workers * ''navrep_render 0 '' displays the pathing for NPC´s * ''navrep_render -1 '' will remove the displayed pathing * ''cmdlist '' brings up a list of the existing commands * ''tabulator '' auto-completing tool for your inputs (Example: you enter "c", then press >tabulator< and the editor will show a list of commands starting with "c".) Basic Mapping Guidelines * ''Try to keep your map small: between 64x64 and 96x96. Dont worry if the terrain of your map is already made, some map resizing programs exist, so you can resize your already-finished map. This function is having problems to resize and place the objects correct, so its working good only with terrain, the rest has to be done manual. * Use Fog and Farclip: Sensible values are recommended. Existing Savage maps usually have decent fog and farclip values. * Test: It is necessary to test your map. Test worker pathing, make a practice base, make sure there are no glitches in building placement. Iron your map out for exploits. Resources and Links * http://www.newerth.com/smf/index.php/topic,10973.msg137599.html#msg137599 - Aneurysm´s mapping Tutorial * http://www.newerth.com/smf/index.php/topic,8427.0.html Newerth forum´s Compilation of mapping related stuff * http://www.evolvedserver.com/savagemapping/ An old guide to mapping in savage * http://www.newerth.com/?id=maps The maps section at newerth.com Category:Tutorials Category:Maps